Herefordshire Council

Rogue gardener fined for targeting vulnerable residents

31 January 2013

A rogue gardener from Hereford has been fined for targeting vulnerable residents. Tom Dean Price of 2 Trilleck Avenue, Hereford pleaded guilty to six consumer protection offences in a case taken to the Hereford Magistrates Court by the council’s trading standards service on Tuesday 22 January.

Price, trading as Your Local Garden Service, had in July last year, cold called an elderly disabled couple in Hereford offering to weed their front garden for £85. He then persuaded them to have the rear garden done too and tried to charge four times as much. When they couldn’t pay the full amount, he took a jar of coins from the kitchen in lieu of payment which amounted to around £40.

In another cold calling incident, Price pretended to have dug out the roots of a number of bushes, but had merely dug holes next to them and covered the roots up. This was Mr Price’s first rogue trader conviction. He was fined and ordered to pay compensation and costs totaling £1015.

Herefordshire Council’s head of consumer and business protection, Mike Pigrem, said: “This is one of many rogue trader incidents that we have uncovered over the last year. Tackling rogue trading is a key priority for the council and we are committed to protecting the vulnerable from such practices. Any rogue traders should be aware that the council will do all we can to bring them to justice.

“People are advised never to deal with anyone who cold calls them at the door or over the telephone. There are no exceptions to this rule as virtually all rogue trading is operated in this way.